Windows

11/09/03

The operating system is the foundation upon which every other application is run. Without a reliable, user-friendly operating system all of those photo editing, card making, music ripping software programs mean nothing.

The market is dominated by Microsoft, especially when it comes to operating systems. There are few other names that you would even consider. Linux is said to be better, more reliable, stable - but who wants an operating system that requires deep knowledge of the inner workings of the program to get it up and running - only to find that your favourite application won't run on it.

So here we are with a few choices - Microsoft, Microsoft or Microsoft. I recommend using Windows XP because it is stable and compliant with a wide range of hardware and software.

This section looks at software and tweaks to improve the reliability and performance of Microsoft Windows operating systems.

TweakUI

TweakUI comes in two (free) flavours: -

TweakUI 1.33 for Windows 95, 98, NT and 2000

TweakUI XP for Windows XP

This is not a tool for the faint of heart. It allows you to quickly change some of the inner workings of WIndows at the click of a mouse. You can: -

Change the way programs grab you attention (stealing focus)

Change the sensitivity of your mouse

Remove the shortcut arrow from your desktop icons

Change the applications listed for a right mouse click (open new document)

Allow autologon on NT operating systems

Belarc Adviser

Another free application that allows you to get a full inventory of all the software loaded on your computer as well as some hardware information. If you are not sure what you have on your PC, download and install this application. The inventory report is displayed in a well laid out and easy to read web page.

HWiNFO32

If you want to know exactly what type of hardware you have installed on your PC, then you can't do much better than HWiNFO32. It will probably give you more information than you need, but that's okay!
Greatis Startup Application Database
This website might be the answer to your startup woes. When your computer starts, so too do a bunch of superfluous applications. You see, when you install a game or a helpful application for example, the people that wrote the software thought that it would be useful to have their program always running in the background. In order to do this, there are several ways that they can force Windows to automatically start them when Windows starts.
Why worry about this? Well, every program that you have running takes some of your processor power, some of your memory and some programs are even a threat to you (a virus for example).

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This site was last updated 11/09/03